KOSJ (1490
AM) is a commercial
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
that is
licensed
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...
and serves the Santa Barbara area. The station is owned by
Rincon Broadcasting
Point Broadcasting LLC is an American radio broadcasting company based in Ventura, California. The company is the owner of several radio groups in Southern California, doing business as Gold Coast Broadcasting LLC in the Oxnard—Ventura radio mar ...
and broadcasts a
rhythmic oldies
Rhythmic oldies is a radio format that concentrates on the rhythmic, R&B, disco, or dance genres of music. Playlists can span from the 1960s through the 2000s and, depending on market conditions, may be designed for African-American or Hispanic ...
music format branded "Old School 94.1 and 1490 AM". KOSJ is rebroadcast on
FM translator
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
K231CR in Santa Barbara on 94.1
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
.
History
Early years
The station launched on the 720
kHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...
frequency as KFCR in April 1926; it moved to 1420 kHz the following year.
KFCR was purchased in 1929 by George Barnes, owner of
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
. Barnes changed the
call letters
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
to KDB in tribute to his wife,
Dorothy
Barnes, and moved the station to 1500 kHz.
In October of that year, KDB's license was canceled for failure to comply with regulations from the
Federal Radio Commission
The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by t ...
(forerunner to the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
or FCC). At issue were broadcasts featuring
The Crusaders, an organization that promoted the repeal of
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
. The station's management fought vigorously to get the license back, and KDB returned to the air by the end of the year.
Over the next couple of decades, KDB was bought and sold several times. In 1931, it became part of the
Don Lee Network
The Don Lee Network, sometimes called the Don Lee Broadcasting System was an American regional network of radio stations in the old-time radio era.
Origin
Don Lee made a fortune as the exclusive West Coast distributor of Cadillac automobiles. He ...
by virtue of being sold to Lee under the corporate name Santa Barbara Broadcasters.
KDB relocated to the 1490 kHz frequency in 1941.
In 1969, Len Menard, doing business as KDB Broadcasting Company, attempted to sell KDB and its
FM counterpart to music publisher Hugh Heller in two separate transactions. The AM outlet was slated to sell for $500,000 on April 30, while KDB-FM was to yield $100,000 in a deal reached August 5. However, the FCC did not approve the transfer of either license to Heller. On November 27, 1970, Menard sold KDB-AM-FM to Pacific Broadcasting Company, owned by Richard E. Marsh, for $400,000; this deal was approved by the FCC.
On September 1, 1990, KDB changed its call letters to KSPE. Two months later, in a reorganization effort, Pacific Broadcasting sold KSPE to Spectacular Broadcasting for $302,000. Around the same time, the station began airing a
regional Mexican
Regional Mexican is a Latin music radio format encompassing the musical genres from the different parts of rural Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Genres include banda, country en español, Duranguense, grupero, mariachi, New Mexico ...
music format. The station's call sign changed once again on January 20, 1997 to KBKO to reflect its new branding, "Radio Bronco"; the format remained the same.
In October 1998, Spectacular sold KBKO and its sister station, then known as KSPE-FM, to
Jacor Communications
Jacor Communications was a media corporation, existing between 1987 and 1999, which owned many radio stations in the United States. In 1998, Jacor was purchased by Clear Channel Communications, now iHeartMedia, for $2.8 billion.
Jacor Communicat ...
for $4.6 million; Jacor merged with
Clear Channel Communications
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
the following year.
Rincon era (2007–present)
On January 11, 2007, Clear Channel Communications sold all of its radio stations in Santa Barbara, including KBKO, to
Rincon Broadcasting
Point Broadcasting LLC is an American radio broadcasting company based in Ventura, California. The company is the owner of several radio groups in Southern California, doing business as Gold Coast Broadcasting LLC in the Oxnard—Ventura radio mar ...
for $17.3 million. Rincon switched KBKO's format from regional Mexican to
progressive talk
Progressive talk radio is a talk radio format devoted to expressing left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoints of news and issues as opposed to conservative talk radio. In the United States, the format has included syndicated and indepe ...
. On October 28, 2008, KBKO changed its call sign to KIST.
On July 19, 2010, KIST adopted the call letters KSPE, a change that preceded a flip on September 15 to a
Spanish-language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
adult hits format with the branding "La Preciosa". In July 2017, KSPE adjusted its format to Spanish
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
and adopted the branding "La Musical".
On September 14, 2017, La Musical moved to
KFYZ (94.5 FM); KSPE
stunted
Stunted growth is a reduced growth rate in human development. It is a primary manifestation of malnutrition (or more precisely undernutrition) and recurrent infections, such as diarrhea and helminthiasis, in early childhood and even before birth, ...
with a looped announcement in Spanish notifying listeners to tune in at the new frequency. The next day, the stunt ended and KSPE introduced a
rhythmic oldies
Rhythmic oldies is a radio format that concentrates on the rhythmic, R&B, disco, or dance genres of music. Playlists can span from the 1960s through the 2000s and, depending on market conditions, may be designed for African-American or Hispanic ...
format with new callsign KOSJ.
In December 2021, KOSJ's 198-foot red-and-white transmitting tower, which it shares with
KCLU and
KZSB, and had long been slightly bent, was shortened to 128 feet and topped with four 12-foot "whiskers" in a horizontal X shape, to give the tower extra electrical length. The tower, which is owned by Rincon Broadcasting, was also painted dark green to better blend with its surroundings. Changes in the radiation properties of the shortened tower required a reduction in night power from 1000 to 940 watts.
References
External links
*
FCC History Cards for KOSJ
*
*
{{Santa Barbara Radio
OSJ
Radio stations established in 1926
1926 establishments in California
Rhythmic oldies radio stations in the United States